Social Web

Just received the latest Google Friends newsletter and as always it's interesting to read what's happening at the most influentuous Internet company. This is one of their articles and I agree strongly with their thoughts about the social web. Will be interesting to see what this new cooperation could lead to.

From Google Friends newsletter:
"The web is better when it's social." This idea has taken root all across the web of late -- the more you can share, update, comment, and contribute in all sorts of creative ways to the steady stream of news, views, and entertainment, the more dynamic and compelling the Internet becomes. For developers, the web is more interesting when they can build applications that easily interact with everyone. But the challenge for those creating software widgets, gadgets and "containers" for content has been to pick the right tools and, until recently, bet on the right platform for building their creations. This is one reason we've banded together with Yahoo! and MySpace: to encourage open software development for as many of the communities and sites as possible. Collectively, we plan to create a private non-profit foundation that can support open development of common toolsets. We think this openness helps everyone.
http://www.opensocial.org

Vem klarar egentligen av att vara avkopplad när man blir nerkopplad från sin uppkoppling?

EQ

As most of you already know I am very fond of doing IQ-tests, quizzes and puzzles of different sorts. I am a member of Mensa just because I felt like taking the test and then two years later ended up deciding I could join the society as well since I did pass the test. There are many great things about Mensa that I like - for example we had a meeting/seminar/get-together the other day regarding being a consultant, starting your own business, etc. Very interesting, especially to meet some of the member that have just been names so far. Another thing I like about Mensa is their mailing lists - especially the one where anything goes. On this mail any kind of subject could be discussed for a long time. It is very interesting to read some of those discussions when you have the time for it.

One of the current discussions is about IQ vs. EQ. EQ is for those of you that haven't heard about it Emotional Quote - something rather like IQ, but instead of measuring logical-analytical skills it measures social skills. I haven't read that much about EQ before and I did not know there were any tests for it. However there seems to be a few tests out there and they had some interesting results that seem to be at least to some point valid. People that have been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome got low scores, most people got around 100 points and some got quite high scores - 120 and above would be high I guess.

Seeing as I see myself and is seen by others as a very social and outgoing person I wanted to the tests myself. And so I did. And perhaps there is a reason that friends have said things like "You could melt into any group of people and just talk to them in a natural way", "You are a social chameleont", "You are a social freak" or "You are mano-social!".

The tests I did you can find on the following two links. They are kinda lengthy with 70 questions in the first and 106 questions in the second, but it doesn't take more than 30 minutes or so each to finish them. The first one was interesting, but I always felt that "this will be the answer that gives you the highest EQ" and then I tried to pick the one that felt most true to me. The second one was harder and more interesting - often I didn't have a clue what would be "the correct answers", but just answered them as truthfully as I could. The second test had pictures where you were going to determine the feelings of the participants in the picture, or scenarios where you'd pick the feelings most likely felt by those in the scenarios. As I said - second one was harder to guess what would be seen as the "best"answers - so you ended up picking the answers you felt were right from your point of view instead which I guess is very good for those kinds of tests.

http://www.psychtests.com/tests/iq/emotional_iq_r2_access.html
www.queendom.com/tests/take_test.php?idRegTest=1121

My test scores?
On the first test I got 126 points - which is well above average, probably within something like the highest 2% of the population.
On the second test I got 146 points - which is extremely high and would place me higher than 99.91% of the population.

Mano-social was it? :)

Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest

An image says more than a thousand words, so here's approximately 150.000 words about Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest.

Bratislava

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you suddenly find yourself in a foreign city on a street with no money and no idea where you are? This is what I experienced on Thursday morning in Vienna at 5:30 in the morning. After walking around in Vienna for a while and starting to find my directions and an ATM things started looking better. I still had no idea of what to do, but decided to go to Bratislava to get out of Vienna. From Bratislava I could go home by RyanAir or just go to some other place later on.

I started the day in Vienna by meeting an Australian girl lost in Vienna. She had a plane connection in Vienna and had a couple of hours to kill in central Vienna. We must have been the only two people awake in Vienna - the streets were just empty of people and nothing was open (at like 6:45 in the morning). So we just walked around, did some sightseeing and talked (it was mostly she that did the talking though - I don't think I ever met a person talking that much).

When she returned to the airport I decided to go to an Internet cafe to decide what to do. From there I figured out that trains to Bratislava left from Sudbahnhof and that they left every 15 minutes or so. So I took the subway to Sudbahnhof, bought a ticket for Bratislava, got some lunch and then jumped on the train.

On the train I met two americans - Lindsey and Andre - and I've been with them since. We've done some sightseeing in Bratislava and seen the old town, the Devin castle and so on. Very nice. Bratislava is beautiful, but a little bit run down. And the weather was really bad the first two days which gave it all a depressing tone. The nights have been better - the 1. Slovak Pub quickly became our second home where we could get all the slovak food we wanted (Bryndza cheese is really good and apart from that it's mostly meet and other hearty meals. Very good!) and cheap beer. We also went out partying, so now I've seen the slow nightlife of Bratislava as well. But it was good fun though - we were just being silly on the dance floor more or less! :)

Also met a guy from London, so now me, Andre and Neel (the Londoner) are planning on going to Budapest by train. Should take 3 hours, so we should be leaving soon.

Will write more and upload photos when I have the chance!

Photos

Pictures from my apartment - cleaned and no people:
http://picasaweb.google.com/anders.ivarsson/DiverseHembilder

Picturs from my apartment - birthday party:
http://picasaweb.google.com/anders.ivarsson/FDelsedagsfestLinkPing

Instant wisdom

You know how you every time you have a birthday get the question "Well, what does it feel like - being one year older?" and you never have a good answer for that, because really you are just one day older than yesterday or even just a few seconds older than you were the other moment? Well, obviously I got this question when I turned 25 as well, together with the question "What does it feel like to be halfway to 50?". On my birthday I did not know how to answer these question in any other way than "meh".

But as I woke up on the first day of my 25th year - March 15th 2008 - I realized something that should have been so obvious my whole life. It's been there in front of me all the time. I am sure others have noticed, but no one told me and I was to blind or too foolish to see it. The simple truth that I have missed for so long is that my birthday is not just on any random day (approximately 9 months from midsummer of course, but nothing uncommon with that). It's a very special day - it is the pi-day.

March 14th.
14/3.
3-14
3,14

I cannot believe I have missed this for so long, and suddenly it is all so clear to me. So turning 25 turned out to be very special. 25 turned out to be the age when I gained instant wisdom.

:)

Ableness

At the moment I am reading a master thesis in psychology by Jannica Stålnacke (http://www.diva-portal.org/su/abstract.xsql?dbid=7061) regarding ableness or talent in the logical-analytical sense (the Swedish term for ableness would be 'särbegåvning'). I found this thesis through the webpage of Mensa and a lot of the thesis have been written in collaboration with Mensa.

Though I haven't read that much of it yet I find it very interesting. I recognize myself in many of the descriptions about exceptional abilities in the logical-analytical sense - for example the possibilities available but at the same time a feeling of not really belonging. This was obviously more true in the first years of school compared to the life of university and work. The thesis also mentions that unlike talent in sports, art and music, logical-analytical strengths are rarely promoted and developed in school. The Swedish school system is in these subjects based on threshold where the goal is to get everyone across a certain threshold - not to develop each individual to the best of their capacity. The thesis states that in Sweden, these individuals have to find their own ways and strategies to develop and adapt their ability.

I guess this is true for me as well. I have always found school quite easy, but thanks to my parents and later on personal interests like Mensa and other things have helped develop my abilities and my understanding of myself. Thanks mom and dad for this - for challenging me to reach further and to develop my mathematical, logical and analytical skills!

The thesis also mentions social adaptability and high IQ. They've done tests that show that most persons with a high IQ often are well balanced, confident, outgoing and had the ability to get confidence and friendship from persons of the same age. I guess all of those are quite true for me. They also say that "the socially optimal IQ is between 125 and 155" - more than that and you often have a hard time adapting and fitting in to the society. Last time I did a IQ-test (just a short trial version - the trial test on Mensa's homepage) it said "You have an IQ of 135 or more - well within the 2% of the population needed to enter Mensa". I guess that meant that I got all correct answers on the test in 7 out of 8 minutes. Right now I'm looking into tests that test the higher IQ-scores with a better precision - I really like solving tests like these.

Anyway - to anyone interested in understanding a bit more about my thoughts, in the subject in general or with talented children in school-age I really recommend to read the thesis or at least just the first part.

I was not sure whether to post this entry or not. It feels a bit like ... just writing about how good I am or whatever. But I think that at least those of you who know me also understand that this is just yet another of my random thoughts. Any comments - just post them and let me know!

Power of internet

A few days ago I found myself thinking about the power of internet. All the services available open up incredible possibilites that we could only dream of a few years ago. The fact that most of what we today call internet sprung up in the last 10-15 years and that we before that couldn't even imagine the possibilities we take for granted today.

But what is the real power of internet? The real power of internet is of course information. That's really all there is to internet if you start to think about it.

And then I found myself thinking that if information is the real value and power of internet, then the power of internet is not within the internet itself, but within the user. I have been working with computers as my main tool in studies, work and spare time since I was 8-10 years old and for me using the computer is very natural. But this is not true for all people, in fact it is not true for most people. The way I use the computer, the programs on the computer and the services on the internet brings together the power of the internet - or should i say the value of internet since the power is within the user - for me to use at my own will.

But as I said, this is not true for most people. Most people find the computer coming in between them and what they want to do. They now there are so many possibilites with the computer, the programs and the internet - but they just can't seem to get the computer to cooperate. And while some people struggle with their computer or simply giving it up or perhaps even miss out on the best and coolest features of whatever, people that are in control of the computer and the internet can find the information they want and the services they need faster and cheaper.

For me, the computer used to be my hobby. It used to be the goal of learning the computer - to be able to use it, play with it or do whatever. Since I started working with computers on a daily basis, I've started seeing the computer as a tool which lets me do the things I really want to do. By using the computer I solve problems unsolvable in any other way, I pay my bills, send e-mails, plan my trips, by my books, share my pictures and much much more. All these things are done more efficiently, cheaper and faster than I could have done otherwise - which leaves room for living, meeting friends and doing whatever makes me feel good at the moment.

So the value of internet is really information, and the power of internet is really within the user of internet. And knowledge is power. This have always been true, compare with the church of old times or the librarians of more modern times. They have been a power source because they have the knowledge and thus some sort of truth. Today information is so readily available that everyone can get it. But the difference between information and knowledge is not insignificant and we once more see that an experiences user can find much more valuable knowledge on the internet than a layman could in the same time.

So will there be a librarian of the internet? Of course we have Google, Yahoo and other search engines that try to be the librarian. And we have more limited services where you pay for expert users to search for limited knowledge for you - e.g. Google Answers. But the best way would probably be to become your own librarian of internet. Learn to use the internet in an efficient way and loads and loads of time and money can be saved.

Where did I want to go with this post? I honestly don't know. It felt like a really good start, but I think I lost some of my points got lost in the conversion from mind to "paper". Anyhow - enjoy and give me feedback. Might try to write it down later on when I've wrapped my head around my thoughts and what I really wanted to say.

Still alive, but much of what have been happening right now haven't been that interesting to write about. Starting new assignment at new customer tomorrow - yeyness, looking forward to it!